RHYTHM & NEWS
Saturday, September 8, 1979
BATTLE OF THE BANGS: A Family Reunion – or Another Bar Brawl – in New York?
While the heat persists in Los Angeles, our East Coast compatriots may be hoping for cooler temperatures now that September is with us. However, with both Femme Fatale and Evergreene scheduled to be in the Big Apple this very weekend, our advice is to not expect anything but hot, hot tension, should the bands meet. Despite their leading ladies’ success with “What I Want,” there doesn’t seem to have been any reconciliation between the two bands who both start their tours this week.
While Evergreene plays Madison Square Garden tomorrow night and launches their North American tour, Femme Fatale will fly out of JFK in a few days, heading for the Europe leg of their world tour. Why the latter is in New York at this moment in time remains to be seen, but it hasn’t stopped some fans speculating that Pia Lindberg will show up on stage to sing ‘What I Want’with Cassie Everard.
Neither of the bands’ management were available for comment on this, but one thing is for certain; the demand for Pia and Cassie to sing this year’s best-selling single together is only increasing, and therefore the spotlight continues to shine brightly on both women and their bands.
CHAPTER 17
PIA
“Are we going to talk about it?” Jon asks as he shakes his scotch on the rocks. I’m sure the ice makes a noise against the glass but I don’t catch it, not with the plane’s engines roaring.
“About what?” I ask, not looking up from my notebook where I’m pretending to work on lyrics, but in reality I’m doodling roses in various stages of bloom.
He says something else, but I don’t hear him.
“Pardon?” I look up.
“What’s going on with you?” He raises his voice.
“I’m trying to write our next best-selling album,” I tell him.
“Not that,” he takes a swig and then raises his glass. “You’re not drinking. In fact, you’ve hardly drunk in weeks. And everybody knows drinking at thirty-thousand feet is always more fun than at sea level.”
“And that’s a problem because…?”
“It’s … not like you.”
“A girl can change.”
“She can.” He leans a little closer. Thank God for business class still keeping him and his scotch-laced breath a safe distance away. “But normally there’s a reason for such a big change.”
I slam my pencil down on my pad. “No reason. Maybe I just want to give my liver a hard-earned rest.”
“It’s got nothing to do with the roses?”
I flip the pad over. “What?”
“The roses you planted in my garden.”
“Well, I don’t have a garden so?—”
“No, I mean, even having rose bulbs or seeds or whatever they are … Like, why? Who are you?”
I roll my eyes and wish some turbulence could hit to distract both of us from this conversation. “I’m allowed to develop new interests.”
“Sure, you are.” Jon nods in agreement, his eyes half-lidded in that way I used to find a little bit adorable, but now I just think it makes him look permanently drunk or stoned. “I’m just curious what exactly that new interest is.”
“I’m thinking about taking up gardening,” I offer. “Planting the roses was a test.”
“But why gardening? Why roses?”
Because the most famous blonde-haired English woman in the world sent me them. Because she told me to plant my own rose garden and watch it bloom. Because that felt like a metaphor for something else entirely.